Purpose Prize

The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organization with a spiritual or religious inclination that funds inter-disciplinary research about human purpose and ultimate reality. It is usually referred to simply as the Templeton Foundation. It was established in 1987 by investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton; his son John Templeton, Jr. took over the presidency until his death in 2015. Heather Templeton Dill became president in June, 2015.

The mission of the Foundation is:

[to serve] as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the big questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. We support research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights. Our vision is derived from the late Sir John Templeton's optimism about the possibility of acquiring "new spiritual information" and from his commitment to rigorous scientific research and related scholarship. The Foundation's motto, "How little we know, how eager to learn," exemplifies our support for open-minded inquiry and our hope for advancing human progress through breakthrough discoveries.

According to the Foundation, it gives away about $70 million per year in research grants and programs.

The Foundation restructured its grant making process in January 2010. It is divided into five core funding areas which include:

The Foundation accepts online funding inquiries each year. If the initial inquiry is successful, applicants are invited to make a full proposal. Typically, grants are approved in a process that incorporates scientific peer review. The Foundation funds many high-level scientific research projects, usually by means of international competitions to which research teams from large universities apply.

In 2008, the Foundation received the National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Many scholars have raised concerns about the biased nature of the research projects and publications backed by the Templeton Foundation.

The Foundation divides its primary activities into the following areas:

The largest of the Foundation’s funding areas, science and the big questions, covers the following:

The Foundation focuses its funding in this area on foundational questions in mathematics or projects that seek a deeper understanding of the nature of reality within the realm of physics, cosmology, astronomy, chemistry or other physical sources.

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